Austenitic stainless steel

Austenitic stainless steel is one of the five families of stainless steel (along with ferritic, martensitic, duplex and precipitation hardened). Its primary crystalline structure is austenite (face-centered cubic). Such steels are not hardenable by heat treatment and are essentially non-magnetic. This structure is achieved by adding enough austenite-stabilizing elements such as nickel, manganese and nitrogen. The Incoloy family of alloys belong to the category of super austenitic stainless steels. Corrosion resistance is provided by the large percentage of alloyed chromium, the inclusion of which imparts a protective Cr2O3 layer on the exposed surface when chromium reacts with atmospheric oxygen.

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